I worked on memorizing the fourth verse of “Jules Bonnot c'était pas n'importe qui” (Jules Bonnot Was Not Just Anybody) by Boris Vian and the last verse of “Docteur Faust” by Serge Gainsbourg. I should have at least the latter nailed down on Wednesday.
I weighed 91.6 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since August 10.
I played my Martin during song practice and it went out of tune all the time.
Around midday I pulled out the dressers from the east side of my bedroom and steamed the baseboards and the floor.
I weighed 92.15 kilos before lunch.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back.
I weighed 92 kilos at 18:35.
I was still three days behind in my journal and worked on getting caught up.
I had a potato with margarine and my last piece of roast pork while watching an interview with Ken Berry about Carol Burnett.
He once had a summer replacement comedy variety show in 1972 called Wow. He found out that he couldn’t carry a show. He already had the utmost respect for Carol but when he discovered how difficult it is to star in a variety show that admiration soared even higher.
When he starred in F-Troop he improvised with prat falls and things like that and it was written into the script that he would do so. Buster Keaton was a friend of Ken’s who he met through his ex-wife Jackie. Buster was not one to offer compliments but one time after watching F-Troop he called Ken up and told him, “That was a good gag last night.” There was no reason for F-Troop to be canceled.
Ken and his wife became good friends with Carol and her husband. She handled her fame gracefully and never was a diva. She was kind to all of her guests and it was hard to be mean to her. She was the star but couldn’t wait to see somebody else get a laugh.
They hired Harvey Korman to direct Mama’s Family because the show had a sketch type feel and Harvey understood sketch comedy.
Lucille Ball had been a beautiful starlet at MGM but when she became a comedian on TV she blew the roof off the business. But Carol took it a step beyond. She was also a great theatrical singer who could fill a theatre with her voice sans microphone. Nobody was more versatile than Carol.
When Ken had been in the army for a year he found out at the last minute about a talent contest on the base and the winner would get to travel to New York and be on the Arlene Francis Soldier Parade Show. He grabbed his ukulele and his tap shoes and went down to the latrine to work out a number with a trick at the end to get applause. He won the contest and went to New York. After the show he got an invitation to join the Third Army Special Services outfit in Atlanta, Georgia. The sergeant who ran the outfit was Leonard Nimoy. Then the All Army Talent Contest came around and Ken won third place and was among the winners who got to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. Leonard sent wires about the upcoming event to casting agents for the big studios. As a result Ken got contacted by both Fox and Universal. Leonard was in on the decision for Ken to go to Universal. They were looking for a replacement for Donald O’Connor in the Francis The Talking Mule series of films. But then Mickey Rooney got the part and so Ken didn’t get a Universal contract after all.
Ken was in The Billy Barnes Revue in 1958 when Lucille Ball came to ask if he’d like to be part of her talent department. At the time she was in charge of Desilu. There were about thirty performers in the stock company and one of them was Majel Barrett, the wife of Gene Rodenberry. Ken met Carol around that time as well when she came to see the show. She was already friends with Billy Barnes and some of the other performers. Carol went back to New York and suggested to her future husband Joe Hamilton that he invite Ken to be a guest on The Garry Moore Show. After that he was one of the co-stars of a TV special called Carol Burnett and Company.
Ken became good friends with his former Sergeant Leonard Nimoy. Leonard starred in the boxing film Kid Monk Baroni in 1952.
Ken guest starred on Dr. Kildare. Richard Chamberlain was a nice guy who used to skateboard around the studio. He got more fan mail than anyone in the history of MGM.
When Ken was between shows he went on the road because he couldn’t afford to stay in town. He did tours, summer stock and dinner theatre. Community theatre paid very well. Just from his guest spots on network TV shows Ken was recognized by someone everywhere he went.
Because his character Captain Parmenter was very clumsy and yet well loved by his men, Ken got a letter of appreciation from a father who told him he’d boosted the confidence of his uncoordinated son.
On the set of The Dick Van Dyke Show there was a sign that read “Nothin Beats Fun!”
Ken says Carl Reiner looked like he imagined god would look as a person. He says Carl told him a story about a guy who dies and goes to Heaven where he meets God. But God is surprised to see him and says, “I don’t remember creating you. What are you?” “I’m a man.” “Man? I don’t remember that creature. I remember the birds but not man. What is it that you do.” So the man starts singing and doing a soft shoe dance and God gets very excited. He asks, “Can you show me how to do that?” He says the moral is that you might do something inconsequential but it could mean everything to some people.
Sometimes Ken would do his own steps for his dance number on The Carol Burnett Show and Earnie Flatt would build the choreography around it. Ken says Toni Kaye from the Ernie Flatt Dancers was as good a dancer as Ann Miller. Ernie had also been the choreographer for Your Hit Parade.
The last time Ken danced professionally was in a show called From the Top that he did with Carol when he was 60.
Fred Astaire was dancing and winning Emmy Awards into his mid-60s. They only dancer who was better was the young Fred Astaire.
Ken says you can’t find a better person than Carol Burnett. She’s the closest thing to an angel anybody ever saw.
Ken played the prince in two TV productions of Once Upon a Mattress.
Ken always wanted to be in motion picture musicals but then the genre died.
The Carol Burnett Show and The Garry Moore Show were run like clockwork. By comparison The Glen Campbell Show was very sloppy.
If you were nasty to any member of Carol’s crew you wouldn’t be invited back.
Ken never worked in any of the Mama’s Family sketches when he was on the show. But he was hired to be Philip the TV movie of Eunice and then he was cast in the Mama’s Family sitcom.
Ken doesn’t like rock and roll.
Billy Barnes was known as the revue master of Hollywood. His revues included Billy Barnes People, Billy Barnes Hollywood, Billy Barnes Party, and Billy Barnes L.A. Barnes wrote the songs “Have I Stayed Too Long at the Fair?” and “Something Cool” that were introduced in the original Billy Barnes Revue. He was the music coordinator for Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. He wrote special material for Carol Burnett, Sonny and Cher, Danny Kaye, Lucille Ball, and The Academy Awards. He wrote the songs for the TV musical adaptation of Pinocchio. He guest starred on three episodes of Mad About You.
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